The announcement of a judicial probe into the murder of minor girl in Kathua district after noisy uproar in the ongoing budget session in legislative assembly is a pointer to the fact the justice delivery system works on the trends and tendencies of the opposition parties and the dissenting voices in the state. Had the government announced judicial probe immediately after the murder of the girl was reported the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti as minister incharge home department had the institutional, constitutional and administrative obligation to take action on the basis of the factual position about the gruesome murder. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ab Rehman Veeri informing the assembly about the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) into the innocent girl’s murder and too when the opposition walked out of the house in itself an indication that justice delivery system does not work on its own but on the tendencies of the opposition political parties and dissenting voices in the state. Since the portfolio of the home department is held by the Chief Minister herself, better it would have been if chief minister without giving an opportunity to the opposition to cry over the murder would have come to the house to inform the members about the girl and announce a high level impartial probe into the matter. Had any police or paramilitary person been killed by the militants the chief minister won’t have wasted even a second in reaching the assembly to inform the members about the killing with a hard hitting condemnation statement and announce an exgratia relief for the NoK’s of the deceased. Ironically the government has not bothered to respond even to the demand of the opposition parties for the attachment of the concerned SP and the Dy SP and making the probe time bound to restore the faith of people in the conduct of the government probes and working of justice delivery systyem.
Though morality demands that the SP and SHO of the concerned district should have been transferred somewhere outside the district to ensure that they don’t get a chance to influence the probe to be conducted by a magistrate but unfortunately the government has not concede the demand of the opposition just to expose its intents of covering up the probe into the murder of the innocent girl. In order to make probe into the murder of the minor girl a free and fair trial for identifying the real culprits of this unpardonable offence, better it would be for the government to immediately transfer the concerned SP and SHO somewhere outside the Kathua district as otherwise the apprehension about the possibility of they influencing the probe would further shake the faith of people in the working of the justice delivery system in the state.